We Are Digitized Long Before We Have Computers: Analog and Digital Communication in the Written Sign System of Human Communication

American Journal of Semiotics, The, 2007 by Xia, Yun

Abstract:

As two fundamental modes of communication, analog and digital communication are not only ways of information transmission but also two mental habits in our perception and representation of the perception in the creation of communication sign systems. In a broader sense, analog and digital communication are not only for electronic communication or high technology computer networking communication. Language is featured by both analog and digital communication, especially in the development of the writing system. The development of the writing system from images or icons to alphabets is the development of an analog communication to a digital communication. The creation and development of Chinese pictographs illustrate the trend from low digitization to high digitization. From this perspective, we can say that the creation and development of the writing system is a process of digitization.

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I. Introduction

As two fundamental modes of communication, analog and digital communication are not only the ways of information transmission, but also, in Wilden's (1987) words, two mental habits in our (1) perception and (2) representation of the perception in the creation of the communication sign-system. In a broader sense, analog and digital communication are not the mere equivalents of electronic communication or high technology computer networking communication. Language, as one of the greatest human communication media, is featured by both analog and digital communication, especially in the development of the writing system. To expand this analysis, I summarize Wildens (1972) discussion of analog and digital communication. Then, I use features of analog and digital com' munication in the discussion of the development of a writing system. Finally, I use Eco's (1976) theory of sign production to uncover the process of the creation and development of Chinese characters. In a writing system, the process is featured by the development from an analog communication to a digital communication and by digital transformation.

II. Analog and Digital Communication

Human beings have two mental habits. The first is the habit of thinking in one full, complete, compact, dense, and infinitely divisible unit. Wilden (1987:222) terms this way of thinking "continuity". The second is the habit of thinking in discrete, intermittent, atomic, and partial units. Wilden terms this way of thinking "discontinuity". In terms of information processing, the continuity way of thinking leads to an analog coding that is based on difference. The discontinuity way of thinking leads to a digital coding that is based on distinction. Analog difference, with mental habit of continuity, is a "more/less" logic of judgment. Digital distinction, with a mental habit of discontinuity, is an "either/or" logic (Lanigan 1992: 346).

From the perspective of information transmission in media, many scholars across different disciplines have used (1) the dichotomy of analog and digital to differentiate the communication mode that involves continuous quantities from (2) the communication mode that involves discrete elements and discontinuous scales (Bathes 1967,1977; Eco 1976; Lanigan 1992; Sebeok 1962, 1967; Ong 1982; Wilden 1987a, 1987b.). Wilden (1972:50) delves into the epistemological differentiations and explicates the logic forms of analog and digital communication. He starts the discussion of analog and digital com* munication by noting the information transmission of different human-made information-processing devices that he defines genetically as "computers". He expands the discussion to the interesting switch between the analog and the digital signal in the message systems of the intra-organisric communication in a human body. When he talks about their distinctions in logical form, function, and epistemological difference, he treats analog and digital communication as two fundamental modes in communication and exchange (1972:61). Let me summarize the differences between analog and digital communication in Wilden's discussion. These differences are the foundation for the analysis of the creation and development of a writing system.

Wilden (1972:50) defines an analog computer as any device that computes by means of "an analog between real, physical, continuous quantities and some other set of variables". These continuous quantities may be, for example, the distance between points, the angular displacement, the velocity, the quantity of liquid, the electrical current in a conductor, or the acceleration of a rotating shaft. On the other hand, he distinguishes a digital computer from an analog computer by denning its way of information transfer that involves "discrete elements and discontinuous scales" (1972:50). Any device that uses the on/off features of electrical relays or their equivalents, such as teeth on a gear wheel, is denned as a digital computer.

In terms of communication modes, an analog communication uses the "more/less" logic form. First, it uses "continuous linear quantities" as the representations (1972: 56). There is a matter of more or less quantity. There is no zero. At zero, the communication is "off ". All quantities are positive. There are no minus quantities. second, quantities in any analog communication are an icon or an index of actual objects. However, those quantities represented are imprecise analog. An analog communication cannot represent nothing because it is an analog or iconic representation of objects. Third, the signs in an analog communication may be divided or subdivided repeatedly without losing their use, because there is no precise syntax.